Pro-LGBT Theater Shuts Down After New York Archdiocese Says Shows Must Conform to Church Teaching

God bless the Archdiocese of New York for upholding Catholic doctrine and being responsible for closing this den of immorality and blasphemy!

From LifeSiteNews

By Emily Mangiaracina

The Connelly Theater in Manhattan, which is owned by the Archdiocese of New York but has hosted woke, pro-LGBT plays, is suspending operations after the archdiocese prohibited shows that violate Catholic teaching.

An off-Broadway theater in New York City has shut down after the Archdiocese of New York, which owns its property, began to prohibit performances that fly in the face of Catholic teaching.

According to a press release announcing the group’s departure from the historic Connelly Theater, the artistic director of production company SheNYC Arts, Danielle DeMatteo, feels the new rule would force the group to “compromise” its productions, which are centered on so-called “gender equity and freedom.” This translates to lesbian “romances” and stories about so-called “transgender” individuals.

When asked if the New York archdiocese required the theater to close down, spokesman Joe Zwilling confirmed to CNA, “We did not order it to be closed.”

Zwilling told media outlets, “It is the standard practice of the archdiocese that nothing should take place on Church-owned property that is contrary to the teaching of the Church.”

“That applies to plays, television shows or movies being shot, music videos being recorded, or other performances,” Zwilling added to CNA.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that theater manager Josh Luxenberg resigned last week amid the new rule enforcement. The Connelly Center also reportedly announced on Tuesday that it is “suspending all operations of its theater.”

According to NYT, “Producers who have rented from the Connelly say they were aware that it was owned by the archdiocese, and that there was always a clause in their contract allowing the Roman Catholic Church to bar anything it deemed obscene, pornographic or detrimental to the [C]hurch’s reputation.” 

It was only recently, however, that the archdiocese began to crack down on performance scripts before green-lighting rentals.

For example, a bishop told New York Theater Workshop this month that it could not show “Becoming Eve,” a story about a Hasidic Jewish boy who is poised to become a Rabbi and instead seeks to become a “transgender woman.”

The move follows a change in leadership at the Archdiocese of New York, which has recently “directed the theater to deny the space to any shows or companies that would be seen as inappropriate by the Catholic Church,” the SheNYC press release said.

“The priest in charge of the jurisdiction is personally screening scripts to ensure they fit within strictly Catholic doctrines,” the group added.

The Connelly Theater building facade is topped by a cross and inscribed with the Seal of the Society of Jesus, the IHS monogram, an abbreviation for the name of Jesus in Greek.

LifeSiteNews contacted the Archdiocese of New York for comment but has not received a response as of the time of publishing.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has articulated in a recent amicus brief how “transgenderism” defies God’s created order and “Catholics believe humans must act consistently with” this order.

The Catholic Church also condemns homosexual activity as “intrinsically disordered,” mortally sinful, and a “sin that cries to heaven,” in accordance with Sacred Scripture and the constant Tradition of the Church. The Church further teaches that the homosexual inclination is “objectively disordered.”